I went through the 1st verse and put the pictures up on the blackboard with a magnet, as we got to each phrase, so they would understand which pictures went to which phrase.

Then, we sang through the song together. I took a small 5x7 picture frame, and "framed" each picture we sung about. Then, I called up a child to do the same thing. I think it was a sunbeam. She did perfect. Some of the pictures are oriented landscape while others are portraits, so they had to rotate the frame to fit the picture.

After we had done that a few times (each time a different child "framed" the pictures), I mixed them up and scattered them around the blackboard. They did the same process of framing the pictures, but it was more tricky since they now had to "find" the pictures.

I told the children I was watching for those that "knew" the song really well to come help me. That really motivated them to sing out and try their best. I was thrilled that this activity worked well from the sunbeams all the way to the 11 year olds. We were able to sing it OVER, and OVER, and OVER, and...you get the point.

Again, this activity could work for any song, but I liked it because we "pictured" each event of the song.

that was a GREAT idea on how to teach that song. We also learned that song this past holiday season and i wracked and wracked my brain on how to teach it. i was origionally going to go with the picture frame idea, but it just didn't come together for me. So instead, I got flannelboard figures and we "created" our own pictures using Mary, Joseph, the stable walls, a manger, baby Jesus, an angel.....you get the idea. They really liked helping me "create" the picture each week as we learned the song.

Pictures do work great. Last year I taught this song and I had the kids be the visual aids. I had two kids come up and put their hands together to be the stable and the next held up a star. The one after that put their hand up to their ear and then one held up an angel, etc. It took lot of kids to do it, but then I would take kids away and the rest had to sing the song without the visual aids. This worked great for me.

this was perfect. I just got called two weeks ago and this will be my first week actually teaching. I needed something for a Christmas themed song since I won't be here Chrsitmas day. Thanks for the idea. I really like your frame idea to go along with it.